Tapiture Enters Ky Jockey Club Stakes Picture

He remains without a victory three starts into his career, but Ron Winchell’s Tapiture will run in Saturday’s 87th
running of the $150,000-added Kentucky Jockey Club (GII) and the colt looms as an interesting contender in the 1 1/16-mile race for 2-year-olds.

Trainer Steve Asmussen
confirmed Monday that the 2-year-old son of Tapit would make his fourth
start in the Kentucky Jockey Club. Though he remains a maiden heading
Saturday’s the race, he has kept
strong company in his brief career.

He ran into the D. Wayne Lukas-trained Strong Mandate in his Saratoga debut and finished as the runner-up to the colt that would go on to win the Hopeful (GI) and finish third to New Year’s
Day in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (GI). He stepped into stakes
competition for Asmussen in his next start on Sept. 7 at Churchill Downs
and ran third to Donegal Racing’s Cleburne, but Tapiture was beaten by just a half-length in that race
at the Kentucky Jockey Club distance.

Then came a disappointing third-place run behind fellow Kentucky Jockey Club contender Culprit in a one-mile maiden race at Churchill Downs on Oct. 27’s opening day “Stars of Tomorrow I” card,
but he has done much to please Asmussen since.

“When he ran his
nice race in the Iroquois we kind of made the decision to point him
towards the Jockey Club,” Asmussen said. “We were disappointed in the
maiden race he ran on opening day, but we were trying
to use it as a prep and we’re just following through with the plan.

"We love how he’s
trained since. I’m very concerned with the weather we’re having this
week. The track was closed yesterday and we’ve had a little hiccup in
our training schedule, but he’s doing well and
I’m anxious to see how he does.”

Ricardo Santana Jr will ride Tapiture for Asmussen, who won the Kentucky Jockey Club in 2005 with Private Vow.

Two Kentucky Jockey Club hopes turned in their final workouts for the race on Monday.

George Prussin’s Dobra Historia breezed four furlongs in :48.80, which was the second-fastest of 11 Monday moves at the distance. The Bill Mott-trained son of Unbridled’s Song was runner-up
on Nov. 9 at Churchill Downs to likely Kentucky Jockey Club favorite Almost Famous in a 1 1/16-mile allowance race.

The morning’s bullet work was turned in by Awesome Sky,
who is expected to seek his first career victory in the Kentucky Jockey
Club and a second consecutive win in the race for owner-breeder John
C. Oxley and trainer Mark Casse.

The Sky Mesa colt breezed four furlongs in :47, the best work of the day by nearly two seconds.

Awesome Sky ran
fifth last time out as the favorite in a 1 1/16-mile maiden race on Nov.
7. That effort followed a runner-up finish over Keeneland’s synthetic
Polytrack surface in his career debut on Oct.
18.

"As long as he comes out today’s work good, we’re going in the Jockey Club,” said Norman Casse, the trainer’s son and assistant who oversees his father’s stable at Churchill Downs. “We thought he
kind of had a rough trip last time, when he got stuck in a lot of traffic. Sometimes you’ve just got to take a chance.”

Oxley, who is seeking his fourth Kentucky Jockey Club victory, and Casse took last year’s running with Uncaptured. Oxley’s other winners were Jambalaya Jazz (1994) and Beethoven (2008).